Rome, Open City

Rome, Open City

Rome, Open City

Finally saw this great film by Roberto Rossellini and was blown away by it. Absolutely great, simple, brutal, honest. It was shown on Sundance Channel. Filmed in 1945 in Rome just after the German occupation, Rossellini tells a simple tale of Italian Underground leaders hunted by the occupying Nazis. A widow, Anna Magnani, is about to remarry but the man is using a false name because he is in the underground movement. A local priest (Aldo Fabrizi) tries to bring a sense of normalcy to the lives of the boys he watches over even though their lives have been destroyed by the war. Magnani's son is devoted to a one-legged boy who is also a rebel. No special effects. No big budget. Only a few professional actors. Yet this is a powerful film and a great film in its very simplicity. Two great scenes: when Magnani runs after the truck taking away her boyfriend and she is gunned down; when Fabrizi is tied to a chair and shot in the back by a German firing squad. Unforgettable.. This is a MUST SEE film.....

Cliche-ridden, and not particularly original, I was left wondering what this film had to offer; it certainly proves that not at all black and white films have any particular merit. Far from the director's best work, you must admire the circumstances in which it is filmed - no mean feat - but it will simply not stand up to scrutiny by a modern eye; I've seen it all before, and there's no reason in particular to watch this film; it doesn't engage as other films do, and I found myself watching passively rather than with any serious involvement. Missable.

"Roma, citta aperta" is a film that cries for a Martin Scorsese to come to its aid in restoring it. There are sequences that are barely visible, as proved by the recent showing on the Sundance channel. Roberto Rossellini deserves better. We are even surprised that his own daughter, Isabella, so well connected with the world of cinema, has not done more to champion the restoration of this masterpiece. Most comments in IMDb dismiss the film without taking in consideration the impact it had when it made its debut. If not for anything, the people that worked in the period of the post war, took advantage in showing a reality to the viewers and revolutionized the Italian cinema forever. The neo-realists were notorious for engaging non-actors to portray the characters they created. It's easy to be critical of those movies that came out during those years and make comparisons based on today's tastes. Roberto Rossellini was a genius who saw the movie industry destroyed during the terrible WWII days. Out of the necessity, the neo-realism style came into being. Directors from that period saw the opportunity to do things differently by bringing the actual filming into the streets of Italy. It was a way for making movies that didn't conform to the established rules up to that point. "Roma, citta aperta" was Rossellini's way for analyzing what went wrong in his country. One the one hand he presents us the forces of evil, in this case the Germans, that wanted to the oppressed masses, the Italians, in a story that puts them at odds and that would favor the enemy because they had the power and their country's leader was collaborating with the invading forces. There is a sublime appearance by Anna Magnani, perhaps the best Italian actress of all times, that is worth the price of admission. Even though she only appears for a short period, her presence looms large in the film and in our heart. We watch, horrified, as Pina runs after the truck where Francesco is being hauled to prison for a fate that seemed clear to Pina. That sequence will remain one of Rossellini's best achievements. Rossellini also shows how demoralized the Germans were. There are also hints of homosexuality, as well as lesbianism, in the movie. This fact, also plays in our consciousness as to how we perceive them. The betrayal of Pina's sister shows how some people collaborated with the enemy in order to get the material things they couldn't get otherwise. In addition to Anna Magnani, there are great appearances by Aldo Fabrizi, Marcello Pagliero, Nando Bruno, Giovanna Galletti, and Henry Feist. The music score is by Renzo Rossellini which plays well with the story. Ubaldo Arata's cinematography stands to be enjoyed more if the film would be restored to its original glory. This was Roberto Rossellini's masterpiece.

Open city is a story about Italy during WWII and the pain inflicted on its people. It is considered by most to be the first Neo-realist movie and, as an Italian-American, it changed my life. It's themes are simple yet poetic; in fact, despite the poor quality of the actual film (scrated and dark at times), its themes are so transparent and well communicated that these flaxes often go unnoticed. The ending is operatic and the feelings of the viewer are never spared (this is a good thing, I promise). This is real life at its most raw, most hurt, and most honest. Yet, there are undeniable themes of survival and heroic acts by the common man. This movie represents Italy and the character of its people (the filmmaker - Rossellini - and the citizens).

The physical quality of this film is off-putting,( the film makers had to use what they could find) but the overall impact is stunning. The talent involved in telling a simple story of outrageous courage is breathtaking. If action is your genre, stay away, but if you can handle a great story well told find a copy of this film. These people understood drama, life, and the human condition.

On its initial release, Roberto Rossellini's 'Rome, Open City (1945)' was hailed for its harrowing documentary realism, sharing the 1946 Palme d'Or, and even today it is regarded as the type specimen of Italian neorealism, a movement that produced such treasures as 'The Bicycle Thief (1948)' and 'Umberto D. (1952).' The film's photographic style, which is coarse and unstylised, could certainly be considered classically neorealistic, as could Rossellini's unavoidable preoccupation with Italy's fascist history and war-time devastation. One might suggest that the film's unexceptional film-making technique was imposed upon Rossellini rather than being an entirely deliberate artistic decision; the Germans had only just withdrawn from Rome, and its citizens were still reeling from years of Nazi occupation and Allied bombing. Just as Carol Reed filmed 'The Third Man (1949)' amid the crumbling ruins of war-torn Vienna, Rossellini uses the backdrop of a fallen city to emphasise the disintegration of a formerly unified nation, now surviving only in fragmented patches of human spirit that must now be forged back together again. Rossellini's film is most often praised for its realism, and for its primary focus on the ordinary citizens of Rome. However, during the film's first half, I didn't find this approach entirely successful. Rather than centering the film intimately on one or two characters, as Vittorio De Sicae did in his two well-known neorealist films, 'Open City' instead jumps from one to another, manufacturing a sense of unity among the oppressed citizens of Rome, but also diluting the viewer's ability to identify with any one character. In this sense, the film is similar to Pontecorvo's 'The Battle of Algiers (1966),' or even Eisenstein's 'Battleship Potemkin (1925),' in that individual characters hold lesser prominence than the ideals for which they are fighting. Suggesting that the art of neorealism took several years to perfect, Rossellini also occasionally veers towards melodrama. Scenes involving the arrogant Major Bergmann (Harry Feist) establish a simplistic "us versus them" mentality, offering Germany as the outright villain in a manner similar to that of any early 1940s American propaganda film. I must admit that I found myself less-than-captivated during the film's opening half, perhaps because Rossellini wouldn't focus exclusively on any one character. The most interesting moments were those tinged with drama – a German soldier unexpectedly removes a gun from his pocket, a terrorist bomb shakes the city buildings. But if I had any doubts about the director's technique, then the harrowing realism of Anna Magnani's death, photographed as though through the lens of a bystanding newsreel camera, without any dramatic fanfare or unnecessary cinematic punctuation, convinced me of its merits. Notably, Rossellini deviates towards drama in his film's second half, but I considered this an improvement, my complete sympathy now directed towards a specific character, the dignified Roman priest Don Pietro (Aldo Fabrizi). The German treatment of captured rebels is unflinching in its hostility, including a prolonged torture session with a blow-torch, and a sombre firing squad execution as city children watch on with downcast eyes. Interestingly, Rossellini doesn't end the film with an Italian victory, as might be expected. The misery lingers; any victory could only be hollow.

Photographed on scraps of film abandoned by German forces as they retreated from Rome toward the end of World War II, Roberto Rossellini's OPEN CITY was immediately hailed as a masterpiece of realism when it hit screens around the world in the late 1940s. Seen within the context of its time and with reference to the circumstances under which it was made, OPEN CITY is a staggering accomplishment; even so, by modern standards, it feels visually static and slightly contrived. The great strength of the film is in the direct way Rossellini tells his story of Italian resistance fighters trying to dodge capture by the Nazis in occupied Rome--and in the performances of Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi as two Italians who become increasingly caught up in resistance activities. But time has not been entirely kind to the film: the story seems somewhat superficial, portions of it lack expected intensity, and some performances seem more than a little artificial, with a lesbian subplot, the famous torture scenes, and Maria Mitchi's performance cases in point. Ironically, these drawbacks actually result from comparisons with later, still more realistic films that followed its example--and it is a great tribute to the strength of the film that it survives the revolution it started as well as it does. (One does well to recall that at the time OPEN CITY was made such slick Hollywood films as MRS. MINIVER were considered the height of realism.) Still, because of these issues I would hesitate to recommend OPEN CITY as an introduction to Italian neo-realism for one not already well-versed in it. But those with an established appreciation of Italian cinema will find it very rewarding. Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This shattering portrait of Rome under the Nazi occupation officially ushered in the wave of neo-realist films after World War II. The images have indelibly etched themselves into our minds: the stunning Gestapo round-up sequence, the death of Pina before the eyes of her cassocked altar-boy little son, the torture of the members of the resistance, the courage of the children, the execution of the priest, the earthy beauty of Anna Magnani's face. They all have an immediacy and power that make this one of the most stupendous filmic achievements of all time. If world cinema lacked ROMA, CITTA' APERTA it would be unimaginably poorer. I can think of no better praise.